Episode 57: Five LinkedIn Statistics Every Sales Professional Needs to Know
In this episode, the Social Sales Link team share the five LinkedIn statistics that every sales professional needs to know. Discover how many millions of LinkedIn members are in the network and how you can leverage that knowledge to help grow your business.
View Transcript
Bill McCormick 00:00
Happy Monday, everyone and welcome to Making Sales Social Live! Where today we’re going to talk about “Five LinkedIn Statistics That Every Salesperson, Every Sales Professional Needs To Know.”
Bob Woods 00:17
Welcome to Making Sales Social Live! As we share LinkedIn, and social selling training strategies and tips that will have an immediate impact on your business. Join Bill McCormick, Brynne Tillman, and me, Bob Woods every week. Making Sales Social Live!
Bill McCormick 00:34
And these are important because statistics mean things. And so the first one that we’re going to start off with is the total number of LinkedIn users. So I don’t know about you guys, and you have both been teaching LinkedIn longer than I have. But when I started, I think it was right around 500 million, they had just crossed the 500 million mark and that was like, 2014, 2015.
Brynne Tillman 01:03
Yeah, I you know, I’d love to go back because I’ve been on this for a stupid long time. And I don’t even know if it had hit 10 million by the time I joined. So… But Bob, you know what number you are? What… Do you remember?
Bob Woods 01:17
I was the 74,899th person to join LinkedIn. (Bill: And when was that?) That was December of 2003. (Bill: Right, OK!) LinkedIn occurred in July of 2000.
Brynne Tillman 01:29
May fifth. I know that because it’s my wedding anniversary. (Bob: Right? That’s right. Yeah.)
Bill McCormick 01:34
So now, right now for the figures ending 2021, the rat, just over a quarter of a billion. 756,000,000 users, which is a quarter of a billion and so that is (Brynne: Three quarters) did I say a quarter? It’s Monday, it’s Monday, and I’m not good at math, but that’s a lot of users. That’s a lot of people that are using LinkedIn. Right? Well, I was gonna ask you. So why is that important?
Brynne Tillman 02:11
Well, I’ll just start quickly. Why I think this is important is for all of you folks that are saying, “ I don’t need to be on LinkedIn” Well, anyone watching this knows they need to be on LinkedIn. If you’re listening on podcast, you may be saying, well, you know, “Why LinkedIn?” or maybe “It’s not for me.” But with that many professionals on LinkedIn, your buyers are here, whether you believe it or not.
Bob Woods 02:34
And they’re also flocking in droves as well, because I’m looking at the progression chart right now that gets to 756,000,000. Ten years ago, it was 174,000,00. Five years ago, it was 490 million. So when I say flocking, it’s literally locking. And I think that, you know, because of the current situation that we’re in, and everything, people are looking to make more connections, and because of, you know, whether you’re not in restrictions or not, people are using online, now more than ever, to make those business connections. So you got to be here, you got to be on LinkedIn.
Bill McCormick 03:21
Yeah. And that’s, you know, this is normal, we’re not going to go back to normal. You know, McKinsey over the spring and into the summer actually came out with a report somewhere around 75 to 80% of the companies that they surveyed said that they want first meetings with sales reps to be virtual. They don’t want to worry about logging someone in and taking someone’s temperature and mask or no mask or all of that. And plus, we know a lot of companies are staying hybrid. So virtual environment, this video environment, this is going to be the new normal work moving forward. So you need to have ways to connect with your clients. LinkedIn is now, we know, 756 million person networking room that’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you’re going to have access to clients all around the world. So let’s talk about the next one. So 756 million users so those are personal profiles (Brynne: Can I just add, really, really, really quick) sure, sure. Sure. Go ahead!
Brynne Tillman 04:28
I cannot tell you how many people will still say to me that my prospects are in here. If they looked for a job in the last seven to 10 years, they have a profile, they may not be completely active but you can find them here and you can find shared connections. And you can really map out social proximity because even if you’re not actively using it, they have a profile and they’re probably connecting with their network. Okay, number two,
Bill McCormick 04:52
yep, it’s number two. So we took the 756 million personal profiles, those are people’s profiles. Let’s talk about Companies, there’s over 57 million companies that are listed on LinkedIn. They have a LinkedIn page and so why is that important, though? But…
Brynne Tillman 05:12
Yeah, well, the interesting thing, when I started in sales, we never started with finding the lead, we started with finding the company. Making a list of the right companies that we want to go after. Almost every company is, I mean with 57 million companies, they’re almost all here. And if they have 10 or more employees, they’re here because the employees forced it, right by adding that. So here’s the interesting thing and this is sort of a newish feature on LinkedIn is you can actually search those 57 million companies, by industry, by company size, and by first-degree connection, so you can see what companies you already have a connection in. So, not only is that huge number of 57 million important, but leveraging the filters, and that 57 million to find your ideal prospects is now in the free LinkedIn is better than it’s ever been before.
Bill McCormick 06:14
And that… I was gonna bring that up, you know, LinkedIn, when we all started teaching LinkedIn, that a lot of stuff that was available in the free version, and they slowly pulled it away and now they’re starting to add back, like Geography now. You can search even to your little small town. I remember when I… Just a few years ago, if you didn’t have the paid version of LinkedIn, and you live between 100 miles north of New York City, all the way down through New York City, Long Island, Western Connecticut, Northern New Jersey, you were considered in the greater New York City area. Now you can search by small town, so that’s good. But then we found recently, in the company search filter on the free version of LinkedIn, you can look not only by industry but by… Drumroll, please! (Brynne: Company size!) Company size. And so that really helps it, in finding those companies you’re looking for and targeting without having Sales Navigator without having to pay that if that’s not something you’re ready to do yet. But LinkedIn, you know, companies on LinkedIn, huge, and they’re using it for all types of reasons that you can use it for the reason you can use their presence on LinkedIn for the reason that you want.
Brynne Tillman 07:26
I love that! And make sure that your company page is up to snuff so when they’re looking you up, it matches your branding. Bob, do you want to add anything to that? Before we get to number three?
Bob Woods 07:37
You stole my point, I hope you’re happy.
Brynne Tillman 07:39
Well, you can elaborate on it!
Bob Woods 07:42
No, that’s fine. I mean, you know, just make sure that everything is as updated as it can be on the LinkedIn page, or company page or whatever you want to call it, essentially. I mean, because just like a personal profile should be reflective of you and you know, what’s up to date about you, the LinkedIn company page should be the same except for the company.
Brynne Tillman 08:05
And as a salesperson being connected to that is your brand. So if you’re connected to it, and it’s not good, and you have a marketing department, go talk to them. Number three!
Bill McCormick 08:15
Number three. So we’ve talked about individuals, we talked about companies. Now let’s kind of hone in a little bit. Let’s talk about senior-level influencers and decision-makers. 61 million senior-level influencers and 65 million decision-makers on LinkedIn and so this goes to Brynne’s earlier point when you say, “Well, you know, my so and so… My ideal clients, not on LinkedIn!” They’re there and even the senior level folks are there. And I know what you’re thinking, “Yeah, they have a profile, but they might not be active.” So Brynne, what would you say to that?
Brynne Tillman 08:55
Well, so there’s, I mean, we kind of covered that a little bit in the beginning, right? If they are, they’re, you can find them, you can map them out, you can identify who you know, that can help you get there, being active on LinkedIn is not as important as you might think, when you’re prospecting. The key is that they’re there and they built a network, they’re accepting connection requests, even if they’re not posting. Now, of course, if they’re posting, there’s opportunities for us to engage. But from a sales perspective, this is really important, because we can see who they are, how long they’ve been at that company, who our shared connections are, and who all the influencers are inside of that organization. So buyer mapping is a really important tool for salespeople. And LinkedIn allows us to do that better than any other tool out there.
Bill McCormick 09:49
And I’ll add to that. There are a lot of people that are lurkers on LinkedIn, even people that are senior-level influencers and senior-level decision-makers. They’re looking, they may not be active. Their page not might not show a lot of activity in terms of posts and engagement but when you send them a message or send them a connection request when you ask them or tag them, they’re getting a notification about that. They’re getting an email that says that to them. And so it’s so important that you’re reaching out with the right intentions, with the right motives, that you’re not giving false flattery, that you’re not saying, “Love what you’re doing there with Social Sales Link.” And if they quiz you about what Social Sales Link then, you’d be like, “Ahhm…ahh…ahhh I love it!” When people tell me just the other day, somebody asked me, told me that they wanted to connect with me because I was in marketing. “So what about my profile made you think that I was in marketing?” They didn’t look at my profile, they did a search under marketing and I came up. So it’s very important with senior-level influencers and decision-makers, that you understand that even though they may not show activity, they are still probably seeing some content. Like Brynne said, “The most important thing is they have a network that’s on LinkedIn and we can leverage that.” Bob?
Bob Woods 11:08
Yeah, exactly! And it’s the power of the network that really comes in here more than anything else. Because, you know, they may never be on LinkedIn. I highly, highly, highly, highly doubt that but you know, let’s just say you come across the one unicorn that isn’t, they still know people who are on LinkedIn, because of that you can reach out to the people they know, and ask those people for an introduction or ask or…
Brynne Tillman 11:33
To clarify. They have to be on LinkedIn in order to do that. (Bob: Right. Right. Right. Yeah exactly) You mean they may not be active. (Bob: Right, yeah. Right!) Yeah. So yeah, just clarifying that.
Bob Woods 11:43
yeah, no, no, it’s great. I appreciate that. So you know, activity doesn’t necessarily mean disconnection. (Brynne: From the lurker’s standpoint.)
Bill McCormick 11:54
Right? Exactly. Exactly!
Bill McCormick 11:56
That’s a good way to recap that.
Bill McCormick 11:57
So next is, as we continue down these statistics, the next one is that, 80% of b2b leads are coming from LinkedIn. Did you get that number? 80%. So that’s not 20%. That’s 80% 20% away from 100%. So eight out of 10 leads for companies are coming from LinkedIn. I think I’ve got the point across.
Brynne Tillman 12:26
Yes and so are you leveraging this opportunity? Because your competition is. That’s the big thing, right? And how do we get leads? There’s lots of different ways to get leads. We love client referrals, networking referrals, permission to name drop, but there’s so many opportunities to start conversations from content, right. And we believe that if you slow down your outreach, meaning, you know, you pace it, you’re not in there going cold calling, lead, lead, lead, lead, lead, something’s gonna stick, but you engage authentically, you take your time to start conversations. There’s the short game, which are the referrals, and there’s the long game, and it’s not always too long, but it’s about being a resource, showing up consistently, being authentic, becoming a trusted advisor, the sale will come when the time is right.
Bill McCormick 13:23
Absolutely and, you know, Brynne said the word, you know – Authentic. And that idea of slowing down. So many people in sales want the shortcut. They want the easy button and so they fall into traps, like sending massive amount of connection requests out with automation, which violates LinkedIn’s Terms of Use. And what we saw recently, probably, I guess, it was right around the fall, September, October, that LinkedIn suddenly ratcheted back the amount of connection requests you could send out to 100 per week. And it wasn’t a static 100. It was basically a formula that only LinkedIn knew that was based on the amount of outstanding connection requests you had, what you were sending. And LinkedIn is continuing to change that and tweak that, because they understand that people are getting sick and tired of getting spam messages and getting connect-and-pitch messages. And so they’re being attuned to that, and they’re listening. And so it’s so important that when you’re reaching out, and you’re using LinkedIn for business development, that you’re reaching out authentically. That when you’re connecting with a prospect, you’re finding context and selling to them as not a context but finding a real reason to connect with them. And if you can’t connect with them, then follow them and engage in content. It’s so very, very important. I guarantee that if you do that, if you slow that down, you’ll end up having more sales conversations with maybe 10 connection requests in a month than if you were to send out the 400 or so that you’re allowed a month that are just spam, throwing so much mud against the wall to see how much sticks. Because what we don’t know is that out of those 400 that you send, how many people do you turn off?
Bob Woods 15:14
Absolutely! And then the other thing that I think if you’re more traditional sales-oriented when it comes to your mindset, those 10 connections are more qualified, rather than just send it out and mass things too because you’re having conversations with them. So it means that there’s already a level of interest there. Whereas if you’re sending out, you know, spam, like things to 400 people, you know, just like cold calling you have no idea if they’re truly qualified. So, also going with the qualified angle, slowing down the outreach speed up the outcome is very important as well.
Brynne Tillman 15:51
Yeah, the connect-and-pitch is dead or I wish it were.
Brynne, Bill and Bob 15:54
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Brynne Tillman 15:58
So the last one?
Bill McCormick 16:00
Yeah! So this blew me away. When I read it. I was like, “Wow!”. Like, when we think of LinkedIn when you talk to most people, they say, “Oh, link… You know, that aren’t in sales, that aren’t in business development” That, “Oh, LinkedIn… That’s where you go to get a job.” Like, “That’s where…That’s how I got my job” They’ll say. And that’s why they created a profile, and that’s why they’re on, they’ll say, or maybe, “Hey do you use LinkedIn?” “I haven’t been on that since I got my job.” But this, LinkedIn has 15 times more content impressions than job postings. And so let’s break that down. Well, what do we mean Brynne by content impressions?
Brynne Tillman 16:39
Well, so if you put out content, you can see how many people viewed it or how many, you know, watched it, if it’s a video, those are impressions. The interesting thing, right, so if you think that LinkedIn is just a job tool, this proves that is incorrect. Right? This is not just for recruiting, it’s not just for finding a job. It’s for thought leadership, it’s for branding, it’s for attracting through content. So if you put out a piece of content, and this could go in a couple of ways, but the way I interpret this, and maybe we should look further into it, if I put out a piece of content 15, more 15 times more people will see that if I put out a job posting.
Bill McCormick 17:25
That’s amazing! And well, it’s because Brynne posts content that’s useful for her audience. You know, when you think about it, that posting that’s kind of really like, I’m really social media marketing at its base, right? They throw that posting out there and they hope that people find it. And they may do some advertising and things like that. But when we’re creating content, what we have to think about is what is the audience that’s going to consume this content. And we have to write our content from that, from their point of view, to speak to what they want to hear, not what we want to say. If I was to create all my content on what I want to talk about, it would be all about anti-automation on LinkedIn, guess what my clients, they don’t care about that, that’s not a big deal. That’s not one of their three big problems that they have, that they need to solve. Their three big problems are prospecting, revenue, and prospecting and revenue and prospecting and revenue. Right? So that’s where I need to create content. And so thinking about this, from your point of view, as a salesperson, you’re going to get 15 more content impressions than your company’s going to get when they put a job out there. So who’s coming to that content? That’s kind of where I would want to take that.
Bob Woods 18:44
Right. Yeah, and then it comes down to… So for me, I always use the old radio station analogy, radio stations, remember those? So you know, you have country stations, you have rock stations, you have classical stations, each one of those actually is designed for a specific demographic. If you program a radio station with only the songs that you want to hear, you’re going to have exactly one listener. And that’s you so you need to know what these different demographics want to listen to, to appeal to them. So you can sell advertising, stuff like that. It’s the same type of thinking with your content on LinkedIn. So you need to know who you’re trying to attract before you put out the content, if you’re just kind of you know, like was said before just scattershot with it, it ain’t gonna work because you’re gonna attract too many people who you don’t want to have conversations with not that they’re bad people. You just don’t want to have sales conversations with them. And this again, comes into the qualification part as well because you know that you have more potential to have qualified people, the people who you want to talk to reading your content as opposed to people who are just coming in because they find your stuff interesting.
Brynne Tillman 19:58
Love it!
Bill McCormick 20:00
And what I want to say is maybe as you’re listening to this, you’re thinking, “Yeah, but I don’t know what to post and I don’t…” Go back in our archives, we’ve got some great content on, you know, “Creating LinkedIn Content For Non-Writers.” You know, there’s a, “How To Curate Content.” There’s a lot of content and podcasts that we’ve done in the past that will give you some really great information. And if you go to socialsaleslink.com/library You can sign up and become a free member of our community and have full access to all of our past Master Classes and past content that will help you in creating some content.
Brynne Tillman 20:40
Yeah, awesome. Well, guys, another fun week.
Bill McCormick 20:43
Yeah, and so if you want to know in the show notes, and what we’ll do is we can maybe drop this in the comments for the LinkedIn live right now we got this from Omni core agency, and every year they put out great statistics on LinkedIn usage, they get it right from LinkedIn, but they do a really good job of kind of putting it all together. And it’s a statistic post that I look at every single year to get my LinkedIn stats. So we’ll go ahead and throw that in the comments for those watching live. And for those of you that are catching us on replay on our podcast, we’ll go ahead and put that in the show notes.
Bob Woods 21:19
there you go. You’ll love this!
Bill McCormick 21:21
Yes, you definitely definitely will. Even though just a couple of weeks ago, I did a post and it started out with 86.3% of all statistics made up, So… Shhhss… So there you go, 5 LinkedIn statistics that those in sales need to know. We hope that you enjoy it. We’ll see you next time on Making Sales Social Live! Bye-bye, everyone.
Bob Woods 21:43
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